Watch: Longshoreman Saves Sea Lion Collapsed In Traffic

SAN PEDRO, CA — A sea lion is well on his way to recovery today thanks to the help of a longshoreman who found the sickened mammal collapsed on a Los Angeles street fending for himself amidst the truck traffic heading in and out of the Port of Los Angeles.

Carlos Gutierrez was getting off work when he saw the creature struggling along the hot blacktop Monday afternoon as a heat wave descended on Los Angeles. He could tell something was wrong immediately.

“I saw him and thought, ‘Oh, that’s not happening,’ ” Gutierrez, told the Daily Breeze. “So I stopped my car.”

It was a sweltering day, so Gutierrez poured water on the sea lion and called the Marine Mammal Care Center for help.

The water probably helped, but it’s never a good idea to get so close to a sea lion, said, Peter Wallerstein, President of the Marine Animal Rescue Team.

“Luckily they didn’t get any bites,” said Wallerstein. “Normally a sea lion can get you and attack. They have a bite 10 times greater than a pitbull, and they have the most infectious bite of any mammal.”

When Wallerstein arrived on the scene, he and his crew put up barricades around the sea lion and sent up a tent to shield it. Then they wrangled the sick and malnourished mammal into their truck to be taken to the center for treatment.

“I attempted to loop him, and he came alive and he violently tried to get away,” Wallerstein told Patch.

In his 35 years of rescuing mammals in Los Angeles County, Wallerstein said he’s never seen such a large sea lion stranded in the middle of the road.

“Maybe we get 5 a year like that, but never anything that big. He was 245 pounds. But he should be 350 pounds,” said Wallerstein, noting that the mammal was severely malnourished and suffering from a lung infection.

The sea lion had likely dragged itself to shore when it became too sick to fend for itself at sea. But after just a few days with antibiotics and nutritional supplements, the sea lion is remarkably improved.

On Wednesday, Gutierrez visited the little guy he helped save.

“He looks great, he looks good,” Gutierrez told the Daily Breeze.

Wallerstein, too, is feeling good about the sea lion’s chance of recover.

“The vet said he was doing well yesterday. He was swimming in a pool,” said Wallerstein. “I have very high hopes.”

Photo: Youtube screengrab